


kiss me twice

by espinosas



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, First Kiss, Fix-It, Fluff, M/M, Slow Dancing, Steve comes back for his boy, the ONLY ending i care for
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-08 14:34:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18625228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/espinosas/pseuds/espinosas
Summary: ENDGAME SPOILERS!!!Hey. Still Endgame spoilers.AU where Steve comes back for Bucky.





	kiss me twice

**Author's Note:**

> Hi. That ending was bullshit and I couldn't stop thinking about it. So I threw myself into producing the MOST self-indulgent, sappy fic I could think of. I wish they'd gotten this ending.
> 
> Also Nat's alive. Fuck that death. We're leaving fridging in the past.

“This seems to be a habit of ours,” Bucky airs as he walks Steve up to the platform where Bruce and Sam are waiting. Or stage. The time machine that isn’t technically a time machine. Except it is.

Steve snorts, his smile not meeting his eyes. “You’d think I’d be used to it by now, then. Saying goodbye.”

Something in Bucky’s face must sour because Steve gets that super serious look on his face like he’s about to whip out some patriotic speech that he’s certain Bruce will tear up at.

“Hey,” Steve dips his head, meets Bucky’s eyes head on. “It’s gonna work. This is gonna take, what, ten seconds, Bruce?”

Bruce, upon being called, promptly drops the control pad to the time machine. Or not. Whatever. “About five, Cap. Six if you wanna push it.”

Sam crosses his arms, eyes flitting between Bucky and Steve. It makes him feel like he’s under scrutiny, and he turns back to start at Steve’s pretty face.

Sam raises a brow. “Hey, are you sure you don’t want anybody to come with you? A lot of shit could go wrong in there, man.” He squints. “Or.. back there, I guess.”

Bucky knows Steve wouldn’t let either of them tag along, no matter what they said, his mind is set. He’s stubborn as hell, his Stevie, and it’s something he’s always hated (loved) about him. Throwing himself on the line for everybody else.

Steve throws a smile Sam’s way and shuts him down. “Ain’t no reason anyone else should be risking their lives. It should be me.”

Bucky’s chest constricts. The thought of Steve being gone was unfamiliar. And absolutely fucking terrified him. It was always him, leaving Steve to mourn; getting drafted, falling from that damned train, running from that riverbank. Hell, even getting dusted. Even if he remembered none of it, Steve had. For five years of his life he'd never get back.

He reaches out, clutches as much of Steve’s suit in his fist as he can, and presses into him. Steve responds instantly, pulling him close and encasing him in. Safe, Bucky thought, and it was about to be ripped from him before he could think to savour it.

He heaves out a breath, lungs burning at the heady realisation, and rests his forehead against Steve’s cheek. “Don’t fucking leave me. I’ll drag your ass back here myself.”

“Buck,” He thinks he hears his voice crack, and Steve turns his face. Rests their foreheads together and closes his eyes. “I promised, didn’t I? ‘Til the end of the line. I meant it.”

Bucky snorts, something wet and ugly as his throat closes up. “I mean it. I’ll kill you myself if this doesn’t work.”

He hears rather than sees Steve’s smile, content to breathe him in. “I don’t doubt that for a second.”

“Just come back,” He whispers when Bruce calls Steve over and his grip loosens, eyes hot and burning. He’s not sure if Steve hears him, in the middle of switching his suit to the quantum alternative.

Steve holds out a hand until Mjolnir makes its way to his person. “Don’t do anything stupid ‘til I get back.”

Bucky’s half tempted to punch him. Instead, he grins. “You’re taking all the stupid with you, pal.”

Bruce dabbles with the machine, and then he’s counting down.

Sam knocks their shoulders together, doesn’t say a word. They understand the nerves that cut deep in the other, and for once, he almost wishes Sam would insult him again. Make fun of his hair or something.

Bucky looks back to Steve, who has his head tilted high. He nods to Sam and himself.

Then he’s gone.

Sam sucks in a breath beside him in the silence. It’s overbearing, makes him itch for lack of what to do. Without a trigger to squeeze, he feels useless. And it’s so fucking stupid because he’ll be back before they can spare a blink.

He looks back to Bruce, who in turn is staring down at the machine. “Five, four, three…”

He hits zero. Steve isn’t anywhere to be found.

There’s no trace of him.

“Uh,” Bruce supplies, smacking at a few buttons. “Okay, give him a second-”

“You said five. Where is he.”

Bruce readjusts his glasses. “Anything after a minute and then we ought to start worrying, alright? He’ll be here.”

Sam adds a dignified fuck into the mix, which helps exactly nothing.

Steve waited five years, defied time itself. He can handle a minute, he can. For Steve.

He runs a hand up Sam’s arm as the man holds in tears, and Bruce has this little, solemn smile on his face. “Thirty seconds, I guess, guys. After that..”  
Sam puts an arm around his shoulders.

Twenty seconds.

Dread rises up his throat, or bile, or a mix of the two. Whatever it is makes him feel sick to his stomach, and he can’t stand to watch nothing happen anymore. He turns to the lake instead, the sun bleeding through the trees and drenching the water in light.

Come back to me, he thinks, watching a bird flit across the empty surface, because I can’t do it without you.

Ten.

There’s a faint rumble, like thunder. Bruce runs a hand over his face and breaks into a grin, smashing away at one of the various keypads in front of him. He starts to mumble to himself in some kind of scientific jargon that he doesn’t catch a word of, but it's enough to get Bucky’s heart thrumming.

“Is he-”

There’s that rumble again, only louder, closer this time. It continues until the podium starts to shake, spark up.

Then Steve just. Appears.

He drops to his knees with a groan, hand on his chest that’s already healing. He stands, slow, and his suit singes.

He thinks he calls Steve’s name, he isn’t sure, but he marches up to him.

All Bucky manages is a push to the shoulder, the material of his suit there ripped at the seam. “You- you fucking-”

Steve is searching his face, eyes wide and so, so beautiful. He’s not even worried for himself. He palms Bucky’s face, thumbing over his cheekbone. It sends a chill up his spine.

It hits Bucky so quick, then, that this is all he wants. This man, however, he’ll have him, for the rest of their lives. And it’s just as simple as that.

He doesn’t think twice when he leans in presses his lips to Steve’s. He kisses back, curling his fingers in Bucky’s hair. It’s so easy like they’d done it a million times over, and his stomach flips with the thrill.

So long. So long, he’s loved Steve. So long, he’s dreamed of this.

Steve hums into it, smiling against Bucky’s mouth. Bucky feels his own tug when Steve reclaims his mouth, fingers tangled in Bucky’s hair causing him to shiver. Which he will deny at any point if Steve brings it up. Which he will. Because he’s a dick.

“Been wanting to do that for a while,” Steve’s laughter is full of life, one hand moving down to cradle Bucky’s face in his hands.

Bucky smiles. “Yeah, well, I had to beat you to it, pal.”

“Of course. Did I live up to expectations?”

He pretends to ponder it, throws in a frown and watches Steve turn pink.

“Ain’t sure. I think I might need another try, y’know, just to make sure.”

Steve bites his lip, chin falling to his chest as he holds in a laugh. He thinks he can hear Sam retching as he walks away with Bruce.

Bucky reaches out for him again, because being this close isn’t enough for him, and wraps his arms around his waist. Steve grins, catching his lips again and parted them with his tongue.

Something inside Bucky stirs, something that hadn’t reared its head for a while. Something like warmth, comfort.

Home, he realized. This was home.

“You’re infuriating,” Muffled as Steve runs his mouth up Bucky’s jaw, giggling the further he gets and kisses his cheek.

Bucky’s veins are thrumming, fire deep in his belly. “Think you’re contradicting yourself here, pal.”

Steve’s smile is bright. 

He takes the opportunity to just… look at him. He’s full of scrapes, his hair’s more ash than hair. He could’ve lost him, his idiotic reckless, stubborn ass. For good. But he came back for him.

Resting his head on Steve’s chest, he hums and enjoys the way Steve plays with his hair.

He’s so content to just exist, be in these arms and breathe. They’re not at war anymore, and he isn’t sure the next fight is their own. The thought makes him thrum with excitement and dread alike.

He watches the sunset, bathing Steve in gold.

“Stevie,” Steve hums in response. “What are you gonna do?”

It’s a loaded question, he knows. But they’ve not known life without fighting another man's war. But they could. They really could.

“I don’t know,” His voice is quiet, and he lets out a sigh. “I had a lot of time to think about it before I got back, Buck. I just don’t know. I do know that you’re it for me. I want you, this, however you’ll have me. If that’s something you want.”

“Oh, darling,” He pulls back, enough to trace an already fading scar with his finger and watch Steve’s eyelashes flutter. He doesn’t have to think about it for a second. “We’re a couple of punks, huh? Of course, I want this.”

Steve thumbs his lip, his own so wide, earnest, in a way that Bucky hasn’t seen since they were teens dancing together on the split floorboards of their apartment. He pecks the corner of Bucky’s lips, smug as Bucky flushes at the intimacy of the act.

“I hear new Asgard is nice.”

“Oh, full of jokes, aren’t you?” Bucky guffaws, wanting to kiss Steve’s smirk off his face. “I don’t care as long as it's away from here. Even for a little while, I think we’ve earned that much.”

“I liked Vienna. Peggy told me a couple of places to take you when I- I may have loitered for a little while, in there.” Steve’s nostrils flare, and his smile turns bittersweet. “She said she always knew, somehow, and told me to get my ass in gear.”

Bucky smiles at her memory. She was always kind to him, they’d been lucky to have her.

“I would like to see Europe outside of running for my life or, y’know, being brainwashed. It’d be nice.”

Steve, still playing with his hair, looks to the side with a sad, little frown and Bucky thinks he’s overstepped.

“I’ll take you somewhere quiet, pretty, somewhere I can take care of you.”

Bucky chuckles a little wetly, palming his jaw. “Oh yeah?”

Steve nods, eyes glossy. “Only the best for my best guy.”

Bucky can’t bring himself to quip back, can’t speak, only watches him. Steve has that serious look on his face, where his brows are all furrowed and mouth a thin line.

He’s so gone for this idiot. He’s such a good man, the best, and Bucky’s a little dizzy from it.

  
“Then I’m showing you the best places to eat and I’m doting on you all I want.”

“Mmm, I’ll hold you to that,” Steve blinks slow, “Maybe we should rest up a little first.”

“After you shower,” Bucky adds, slipping his hand in Steve’s and tugging him back to what was salvaged of the Avengers’ headquarters. “I’m not letting you anywhere near me until you don’t smell of a chimney.”

Steve nuzzles his face against him, ripping giggles from Bucky’s lips, with his hair tickling Bucky’s jaw until he’s pushing him away.

“I hate you.”

Steve’s eyes crease as they walk, and Bucky wishes he had a fraction of Steve’s ability to capture beauty with a pencil because he takes his breath away. He wants to capture that joy up and cherish it. “Oh, I know.”

Natasha salutes them as they pass her, shoveling debris into a pile. “Looking good, Rogers.”

Steve sticks his tongue out, like the dignified, grown man that he is.

Bucky winks. “You know it.”

* * *

“You’re sure about Vienna?” Steve asks, lips on the back of Bucky’s neck, arms around his waist.

Bucky hums as he turns in his hold, comforter up to his chin. “Right now, I couldn’t give a shit. I just want you to hold me.”

Steve nips at his side, far too awake in the middle of the night than anyone has any right to be.

“Seriously, I don’t care s’long as you’re there. Now let me sleep.”

Steve hums an okay, apparently settled with his answer, and scoots closer to him.

Bucky hides his grin in the pillow.

* * *

 _You'll never know how many dreams_  
_I've dreamed about you._

Bucky sways in Steve’s arms, the music probably a little too loud for the hotel’s policies, but he’s too in bliss to care.

They’re terrible dancers, the both of them, better at the art of a weapon in their hands than another human being to lead. But they try, they laugh, they kiss.

The Danube sparkles in the near distance as they twirl together, balcony doors open and the curtains swaying in the summer breeze. Bucky liked to think they were dancing with them in the gentle sun as time stood still.

It could be 1930, Bucky barefoot and dirty and holding Steve’s frail frame against him, or sometime in 2023, them dancing in the prettiest hotel room their money could buy full of a little too much red. It didn’t matter to him. They were making up for all the years missed.

And he couldn’t ask for anything more.

**Author's Note:**

> Btw, Sam still gets the shield and all is well.
> 
> Find me on twitter at @valyriaas


End file.
